He said efforts since September to reinvent Ryanair's image and reputation helped passenger traffic rise 4 per cent in the second half of the year. It has also seen better booking trends and fuller planes in the current year.

Changes have included the relaxation of bag restrictions for passengers, a reduction in baggage charges and an easing of booking conditions.

The airline, which operates more than 1,600 routes from 68 bases, has also moved to fully allocated seating on all flights, meaning that passengers who do not pay five euro (£4.10) to select their seats will be allocated them during the 24 hours prior to the date of departure.

The company expects to fly 84.6 million passengers in the year to March 31 - a 4 per cent rise on a year earlier - although it remains "very cautious" about booking trends for the winter period.

Overall, the airline is predicting a recovery in profits for the current year to between €580million and €620million.

Over the next five years, the airline also plans to grow to more than 110 million customers a year.

Last week Ryanair’s great rival EasyJet’s reported a pre-tax loss of £53million in the first half of its financial year, when airlines traditionally lose money, a 13.6 per cent improvement on the £61million loss it had incurred at the same stage last year.

It grew its share of business passengers grew by 8.5 per cent, ahead of overall growth of 4 per cent, as they responded to easyJet’s popular move to introduce allocated seating, despite a fall-off in traffic on its new Moscow route due to the Ukraine crisis.

In the past four years, easyJet’s pursuit of business travellers has delivered an increase of 44 per cent in custom from the important section of the aviation market.

Meanwhile, the owner of British Airways reported a fall in operating losses for the first three months of the year to €150million (£122.6million) compared with a €278million loss a year earlier, as a result of restructuring Spanish carrier Iberia.

International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), which owns both BA and Iberia said the restructuring of the Spanish airline continued to be ‘a work in progress’. IAG's results beat analysts' forecasts for a loss of €162million.